Gay Catholics discuss marriage equality

NEWS

by Seth Hemmelgarn

Father Geoff Farrow, who lost his job at a priest at a
Catholic Church in Fresno after he came out as gay and urged congregants to
vote against Prop 8, spoke at Dignity USA's conference in San Francisco last
week. Photo: Rick Gerharter

Reaching out to people of faith is seen as one of the most
important aspects of repealing Proposition 8, and that was one of the topics
addressed as Dignity USA, a group for LGBT Catholics, held its biennial
convention in San Francisco last weekend.

Catholic church leaders, including San Francisco Archbishop
George Niederauer, urged parishioners to support the measure, which eliminated
the right of same-sex couples to be married in California.

In a phone interview, Marianne Duddy-Burke, Dignity's
executive director, said that along with other progressive Catholic
organizations, Dignity is part of a program called Catholics for Marriage
Equality.

"We're really trying to tap into that support that
exists and that we believe has grown since those 18,000 [same-sex] couples were
able to legally wed in California," said Duddy-Burke, noting the
unfairness of couples being allowed to marry before Election Day in November
while, later that same week, same-sex couples weren't allowed to wed.

"We really have to do it one heart at a time, one
family at a time, one congregation at a time," said Duddy-Burke.
"Unlike the bishops we can't send a pastoral letter to every church in
California and expect it will be read at Sunday mass, so we depend on the power
of truth and Catholics' commitment to justice to do this work."

Duddy-Burke drew a distinction between civil marriages and
religious marriages.

"Dignity has certainly believed that our relationships
should be recognized with both civil and religious marriage, but I think for
purposes of political discussion, keeping the clarity between the two is
important because of the lies that our bishops told in 2008," said
Duddy-Burke, referring to claims during the Prop 8 campaign that clergy would
be forced to recognize same-sex marriages if Prop 8 didn't pass.

Duddy-Burke said that at its highest point the convention,
which ran from July 2-5, had about 370 people on hand. She said Dignity has
close to 4,500 members.

During a Prop 8 panel at the convention, Father Geoff
Farrow, a Fresno priest who lost his position after
coming out last October as a gay man and urging his parishioners to vote no on
the measure, recalled the dread of at least one person who had come out
to him.

"This is an issue of human dignity ... the greatest
fear a young person has when they're lesbian or gay is they'll be
rejected," said Farrow during the panel.

In a phone interview, Farrow said that the most important
thing for LGBT people to do is "tell their stories, come out."

It's easy to be opposed to an issue, but it's another thing
to be opposed to a person, said Farrow, "so I think the greatest thing
that first of all LGBT people or their families and loved ones can do is simply
to make themselves visible, to tell their stories."

Farrow, who now lives in Los Angeles, said that he's been
working with the group Love Honor Cherish, which is preparing to collect
signatures for a ballot initiative to repeal Prop 8 in November 2010. He's also
been doing public speaking engagements and interviews with the media to talk
about Prop 8.

Eugene McMullan, another panelist, talked about how the
grassroots activism after Prop 8 inspired him to get involved. He participated
in the march to Sacramento this spring led by the group One Struggle, One
Fight. McMullan, who identifies as bisexual, wore his rosary every day and said
the march was a "deeply religious" and "life changing"
experience "about figuring out how to be Catholic and be fully who I am
and be an activist."

McMullan also started a group called Catholics for Marriage
Equality. The group he started will be combining efforts with the Dignity group
of the same name, he said.

Another group working on marriage equality is California
Faith for Equality.

Pastor Samuel Chu, California
Faith for Equality's interim executive director, said that when working with
Catholics, his group is focusing on training lay members.

"The people in the pews are the people we really need
to connect with and engage," and change the minds of, said Chu. He said
California Faith for Equality will be working with Dignity on marriage
equality.

Andrea Shorter, Equality California's
coalition coordinator, also has been reaching out to
communities of faith and color on marriage equality.

Responding to an e-mail addressed
to Shorter and her about EQCA's plans for reaching out to Catholics, Vaishalee
Raja, EQCA's communications director, said in an e-mail that Shorter was
traveling and wouldn't be able to comment, but Shorter's "coalition
building and faith outreach efforts are broad-based and designed to reach out
[to] the diverse faith community."

Farrow after Fresno

Farrow, the Fresno priest who lost his job after coming out,
said he supports himself from honorariums from speaking engagements, a small
stipend from his family, and performing weddings.

Farrow said he did have a job "lined up" as
executive director at Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice-Los Angeles.
However, Farrow said a board member told him that the Catholic Archdiocese of
Los Angeles had said that if CLUE-LA hired Farrow, the archdiocese would
disaffiliate from the group.

The Reverend Jim Conn, chairman of CLUE-LA's board, said the
group had liked Farrow's application and had scheduled an interview with him
but had not offered him a job.

Conn, who was limited in what he could say about the
situation since it involved a personnel matter, said he couldn't say anything
about the archdiocese and would not confirm the archdiocese's threat. He said
he was the board member who had told Farrow of the interview cancellation.

"There are a lot of reasons. This is a personnel issue.
That's stuff that's hard to talk about," said Conn.

He said CLUE-LA doesn't get any direct funding from the
archdiocese.

"CLUE is a broad coalition of faith communities who
organize people of faith to advocate for low-wage workers," said Conn.
"That's what we do. That is the single purpose of this organization. So
everything that we do has to be consistent with that mission statement, and to
our best ability we're going to do nothing that jeopardizes that
capacity."

Conn said the archdiocese is a participant in the group's
work, along with Methodists and other faith communities.

Asked about the archdiocese protesting the possibility of
Farrow's hiring, Tod Tamberg, director of media relations for the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles, offered a curt response.

"CLUE has its own procedures for hiring people and
retaining people," said Tamberg. "That's not our business. You'll
have to talk with CLUE."

Tamberg said individual priests are members of CLUE. He said
he didn't believe the archdiocese provides funding to CLUE.